Recent reviews by MathematicallyAFox

It's a really fun game in my opinion, from the perspective of a Series 3 player. There's just enough chaotic shenanigans to ♥♥♥♥ around with, but also I also feel a balance in the decks I play and play against. Sure there is some ass cards like Leech (Except when Infinaut is in your hand) as well as some broken cards on released, but you'll find the game mostly fun if you're trying different strategies. There is p2w purchases, but typically it is a few cards, and most likely you'll run into them anyway since the public will eventually get access to them in Series 3. Only real complaint I have is on the damn Warlock nerf! You murdered a not even that exceptional card for no reason, and now it is basically unplayable!

Review Created 9/30/2023, things may have been changed since the making of this.

Payday 3 had a rocky start with the servers being ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and all, but now that everything seems to be running fine: Payday 3 is pretty fun. This is kind of a comparison of Payday 2, but also highlights what I think the game does right.

To give some background perspective on my view, I got Payday 2 back during the 10th Anniversary sale and have played 43.3 hours on it only Solo, having beaten a good amount of Overkill missions and a few Mayhem missions, so I'm not well versed in the game fully, but have a good grasp.

As of making this review, I have 15.2 hours and have beaten all heists on Normal and No Rest for the Wicked and Road Rage on Hard mode. I've mostly played Public, but have done Solo on No Rest for the Wicked and Rock the Cradle.

The Hard Negatives (Affects every player):
- General lack of support for solo. First of all, obviously, it is always online, so you always have to communicate with the server manager in order to get into a match, whether it be a Public one or a Private server to play by your self on. And missions, while playable and beatable even on Overkill with solo, do not scale to the player count. This is most notable on No Rest for the Wicked with the dye packs, but for other missions it is semi apparent. In Payday 2, they had buffs to give the non-bot players for each player missing, but that is not the case here.

The Soft Negatives (Depends on how you queue):
- No lobby chat for some reason. I don't understand why that was never implemented.
- Having a sort of quick play system is fine, but I feel like implementing hosting would benefit having some control over how a heist goes with randoms

Neutral:
- The general tasks you do to level up are alright, they are really weapon tied but there is also some general ones that you don't have to go out of your way to do such as "Kill x Zappers".
- The key bindings for actions in Payday 3 absolutely ♥♥♥♥ with you if you've played Payday 2, I wouldn't be surprised if that was intentional. They made the throw bag key from Payday 2 to be the use throwable action.

Positives:
- The Casing Mode overhaul. In Payday 2 casing mode felt so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ confined and limiting because you couldn't do anything besides position yourself and were stuck at a slow walking pace unable to crouch. And it wasn't even that useful because guards could still detect you. In Payday 3, it is extremely different. You can now crouch and run as well as interaction with doors and carry bags. You could have a few team members in casing mode to help transport loot in front of civilians and guards. It is also useful for navigating private areas since you don't get a penalty for being caught as long as you cooperate. It makes stealth feel so much better than in Payday 2 and leaves more room for error.
- Unlimited cable ties and no longer needing body bags to transport corpses allows more freedom in your loadouts and helps bridge the gap between Stealth and Loud.
- Difficulty has a larger effect on Stealth than in Payday 2, such as reinforcing cameras and a guard with infinite radio calls roaming the map, but it also changes smaller things such as locking a door that was previously open. And if it seems like difficulty doesn't have too much of an effect on Loud beyond changing stats, it does add special events such as FBI Raid which lasts until you destroy the radar.
- Enemies have consistent health across all difficulties. It makes going from one difficulty to the next more smoother.
- Each heist has personality. In Payday 2, a lot of heists were very similar to each other, but at least for the release heists, they each have a unique feel to them, having their own unique gimmicks such as the dye packs in No Rest for the Wicked and the scanner for Dirty Ice.
- A lot of actions feel much less tedious such as lockpicking. Holding a button for long periods isn't that satisfying and made Payday 2 deposit box heists a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ chore, while Payday 3 has that minigame that just feels good to complete as well as the glass cutter trace that some people find a bit annoying.

If you want to have the best possible experience, I'd suggest play with friends since you'd be able to communicate more freely to one another and won't have to wonder what the ♥♥♥♥ is going on and not accidentally trigger the alarm and feeling immediate guilt (Just me?). Anyways, here are my ratings for all of the ways you can play. I haven't played with friends myself, but for my standards, it bypasses all the negatives since you have full communication and control.

10/10 - Playing with Friends
7.4/10 - Playing Solo
7.1/10 - Playing Randoms

I recommend this game for those who enjoy gameplay loops and first person shooters. It is mostly methodical in Stealth, but is fast paced for Loud. So if you don't really enjoy those aspects, you might not have as enjoyable as an experience.

That's it, if you made it to the end, give yourself a pat on the back and a gold star. And if you are reading this after owning the game, you have wasted a little bit of your time.

I used to like the series and I like the new concept rather than just another sit still and survive, but this game has some glaring flaws. Also, I've played through most of the game so there may be a few minor spoilers.


I got the game on PC originally, but it was horribly optimized and had a huge amount of bugs. The Monty chase scene had me replay it multiple times due to part of the map not loading in on time, causing me to get stuck. There was a few points where the game crashed on me, even when I played on lowest settings. I only managed to make it to the stage section of the parts and service minigame before attempting to get a refund, which was denied due to my 9.2 hours on the game, and getting it on PS5, which in hindsight, I should of got it there in the first place.

The experience on PS5 was better, but still had some bugs such as part of the map not loading in on the cameras in one spot of Bonnie Bowling. Another bug I found on my playthrough is how sometimes the pathfinding for calling Freddy may cause him to teleport farther away from before running toward you. It only really happened during moments where I was looking around, but I can see how annoying it could be. The animatronic elevators also had a weird bug of not opening if you get out of range while in the elevator, forcing you to push the button to go back down and then up again to be able to exit.

My biggest disappointment, however, is the "free roam mode" at the end of the game. When yo;u choose to stay at the pizzeria when it hits 6 AM, you pretty much have an one life system. Get caught once and you have to start over on your entire progress after 6 AM. The game removes save systems, meaning if you want to dismantle the animatronic you missed, you have to do it in one sitting. This can be a pain, especially if you want to go for the collectibles for 100% completion. Some people playing this game may not have the time or patience to play through an entire part of the game in one sitting. Removing the save systems should be optional, like some sort of Hardcore or Superstar difficulty.

My only other complaint is how the camera angles and lack of instructions is confusing for the mazercise puzzle. Other than that, I've enjoyed 12 AM to 6 AM of this game and the little minigames for the security badges. If just the after 6 AM sections and the game gets more optimized, I will change my rating to positive since it is fun to play.

Sydney Sleeper Piss Gun is funny 14/10

This game requires some skill and maybe some luck, but it is amazing. There is also some characters that only Dee Dee can add to the night. Here are the characters that only Dee Dee can add to the night I saw (Note: This information may be different later): Lolbit, Plushtrap, Shadow Bonnie, and Shadow Balloon Boy?. There is over 50 characters that can attack you. There is some memory required. It is a very amazing game!